It was a quiet affair when the Chameleon Chamber Group took to the cavernous loft called SPACE to record Live In Space, a live recording of classical treasures. Only one of the six songs from this EP was written within the last century—an adaptation of The Polyphonic Spree's "Ensure Your Reservation." The rest of the record offers a brilliant musical horizon-expanding experience with interesting adaptations to songs familiar only by melody for most pop music fanatics. Debussy's beautiful "Golliwogg's Cakewalk" is adapted nicely to a synthesizer, and Tchaikovsky's "Theme From Swan Lake" is layered with a deep, menacing drone.
Aside from a few taps and other room sounds, you get the feeling that the session recorded without an audience—that is, until you hear whistles during a particularly quiet section at the top of Harry Dacre's "Daisy Bell," and cheers after the last note of Johann Sebastian Bach's "Badinerie," the final song on the album.
The record's first song, however, Erik Satie's sinister "Gnossienne no. 1," stands out as the strongest, slowing down the pace of the original while keeping the lamenting tone intact. Much like the other songs, Chameleon Chamber Group has modified only the instrumentation, leaving the heart of the music intact—if not enhancing it.
